An industrial risk the Qatar blast shares with accidents in India | Explained
The story so far: An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar, claimed the lives of 12 Indian workers and one Pakistani
The story so far: An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar, claimed the lives of 12 Indian workers and one Pakistani worker on June 21. While local authorities have just begun their investigation, QatarEnergy, the country’s national energy company that maintains the gas facility, said the blast occurred when workers were restarting it — alluding to a well-known risk, but seemingly poorly managed in India, of a type of industrial activity called a transient process. How can restarting be dangerous? An industrial plant is often at its most dangerous not when it is running at full capacity because that is what it was designed to do. It is more dangerous when it is starting up or shutting down because during these transient operations, the facility is moving from one state to another. In fact, a typical industrial facility will spend more than 90% of its time in steady-state operations, i.e. when it is not switching between states. In this period, variables like temperature, pressure, and flow rates are fixed and/or predictable. On the other hand, data assessed by organisations like the Centre for Chemical Process Safety consistently show that nearly 50% of all process safety incidents occur during the remaining 10% of the time, when the facility is in a transient mode. Recent examples of such accidents in India include the Escientia Advanced Sciences explosion in Andhra Pradesh in 2024, the Amudan Chemicals explosion in Maharashtra in 2024, and the Vedanta power plant explosion in Chhattisgarh in April this year. Why are transient processes so risky? In technical terms, during transient operations, engineers say the safety envelope of a plant is being tested in real-time. During a startup, such as the one at Ras Laffan Port in Qatar, the facility’s equipment is subjected to rapid changes in temperature and pressure. This introduces thermal stress: different parts of a metal structure expand at different rates. So if a pipe is heated too quickly, the physical expansion can cause mechanical failure or creep, leading to the containment being breached. In chemical reactors like those at Amudan Chemicals, the concentrations of reactants during the initial charge are not at their equilibrium.
This can lead to an exothermic runaway, a situation where a chemical reaction releases heat faster than the cooling system can remove it, causing the temperature to rise exponentially, risking an explosion. As in the Vedanta pipeline burst in April in Chhattisgarh, equipment that had been idle or had been under-maintened was suddenly pressurised. In this part of the restart phase, hidden issues like dead-legs, i.e. sections of pipe that do not have flow, allowing moisture and corrosion to accumulate, or oxygen ingress, i.e. air leaking into a system that should be inert, become threats. If a system is not properly purged by using an inert gas like nitrogen to displace oxygen and/or volatile vapours, introducing a spark or heat during a startup can trigger a vapour cloud explosion. Which Indian laws/rules apply to such accidents? The Factories Act 1948 applies to almost all the accidents as it addresses the operator’s duties to prevent fires and explosions, mandate safeguards and disclosures, and have emergency plans when dealing with hazardous processes. The 1989 Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules under the Environment Protection Act 1986 aims to prevent vapour cloud explosions and other chemical mishaps by requiring safety reports, on-site emergency plans, risk assessments, notifications of major accidents, and controls for ignition sources, leaks, runaway reactions, etc. The 2010 Central Electricity Authority Regulations may apply if any sources of ignition or electrical equipment interact with a flammable gas or mix of gases. Under the 1989 Rules, the section on ‘Major Accident Hazard’ further demands periodic hazard reviews, emergency drills, and documented standard operating procedures for ‘abnormal’ states of operation, which include transient processes. The Boilers Act 1923 and the various State boiler rules address the inspection and certification of boilers and pressure systems, conditions of safe operations, the qualifications of operators, and periodic inspections, including after repairs or periods of shutdown. Finally, environmental and labour laws are respectively invoked when there have been hazardous emissions and the working conditions, contractors’ responsibilities, maintenance and shutdown safety operations, and the worker’s training and access to safety equipment are relevant.
The BriefWire